The present invention relates to apparatus for identifying articles that are produced by glassware machines and the like in a cyclic machine process. More particularly, the invention relates to a swab reject device that identifies and rejects articles produced in a particular mold during a particular cycle or cycles of operation after swabbing.
In the course of operating individual section (IS) glassware forming machines, it is necessary for the machine operator to periodically swab the blank molds and the blow molds at each side of the machine with a releasing agent to maintain the molds in proper working condition and prevent the molten glass from adhering to the molds during forming operations. The releasing agent is a liquid mixture of oil and carbon black that leaves a residue on the articles, such as glass bottles, that are formed in the mold during the machine cycle or cycles following swabbing. The residue is difficult to detect and remove from the bottles as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,729 and, therefore, it is desirable to reject the affected bottles from the output of the forming machine.
A reject device for a glassware machine and the like is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,374 having the same assignee as the present invention. This prior art reject device is used for continuously rejecting articles from a particular mold of an IS machine and is not capable of discerning between articles formed in one cycle or another. The reject device is also incapable of rejecting a particular number of articles except through deliberate control of the reject device by the machine operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,904 issued to Fergusson discloses an electronic system for identifying articles from a multi-mold glassware forming machine for marking and subsequent separation. This electronic system utilizes a shift register that is clocked from a pulse generator running in synchronism with a lehr conveyor so that a time delay proportional to the rate of conveyance allows the marking or identification to occur at a predetermined time after formation of the rows of articles on the conveyor. However, this system is not capable of identifying articles formed during a particular cycle of the machine nor can the system limit the number of articles so identified except through control by the machine operator.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can identify an article formed in a particular mold during a particular cycle of operation after that article has been placed on an output conveyor of the machine.